PASADENA >> Two members of a team hired by the City Council for the Robinson Park renovation project were involved in Councilman John Kennedy’s election campaign last year.

The Carter Agency, a Pasadena-based public relations firm led by Ron Carter, will receive approximately $200,000 of an $802,000 contract awarded to GKKworks architectural firm on March 3. The agency donated $200 to Kennedy’s campaign. Carter’s employee, Sadara Shakoor, received $3,500 to do consulting work for Kennedy, according to election filings.

Tracy Westen, vice president and CEO of the Center for Governmental Studies, said Kennedy should have recused himself from the vote to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

“It seems to me (the council meeting) would have been the appropriate time to make the disclosure,” Westen said. “In these areas it’s often a matter of appearance and appearance can be as bad as actuality. If something looks bad it undermines the public confidence and the integrity of the process. This looks a little too close for comfort for me.”

The city issued a request for proposals on the design phase of the $8.3 million project last year and selected Pasadena firm Gonzalez Goodale Architects with a $754,000 contract from a pool of 17 applicants. However, the council voted 4-3 not to move forward and instead issue the request for proposals a second time with a different process.

Kennedy was the main advocate to reevaluate the selection process, complaining that community members should have been more involved. The council last week unanimously approved the $802,000 contract for GKKworks, which was chosen from eight submitted proposals. Gonzalez Goodale Architects did not resubmit.

Kennedy said he had “no input whatsoever” in the selection of GKKworks and The Carter Agency for the contract.

“Both of them (Ron Carter and Sadara Shakoor) were supporters of my campaign but I was not aware they were engaged with the architect. I had never met the architect,” Kennedy said.

City Manager Michael Beck said the city also was unaware of the connection during the selection process and City Attorney Michele Beal-Bagneris said she does not believe the city’s policy required Kennedy to recuse himself from the vote.

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“I would say it had zero impact on the evaluation,” Beck said.

Malachi Bray, communications manager for GKKworks, said the firm chose The Carter Agency because of its track record consulting on projects in Pasadena, especially in the northwest neighborhood.

Kennedy said he thought the revised selection process was successful because it allowed the community members on the Robinson Park renovation project’s steering committee to participate in the review of the proposals and the interview process.

“My primary concern was the community involvement in the process and I think that was addressed through the revamped process,” Kennedy said.

Madison, McAustin and Gordo argued at the March 3 meeting that changing the process midway through portrayed the city in a negative light, pointing to the decrease in bids the second time around.

“If we handle more contracts the way we handled this one, ultimately people will stop bidding. They won’t do it if they believe there is a chance that halfway through we are going to start over or throw out all the proposals and ask for a new RFP,” Gordo said at the meeting. “I believe that’s what we saw when we went from 17 to 8. The end result will cost us more money.”

Madison agreed.

“Any objective observer would look at this and say they are trying to steer the contract to somebody else,” Madison said. “The way this went down, it’s not a proud day for us.”

However, community members were supportive of the change, noting that the $5 million first phase of the renovation, completed in 2010, had not been as successful in involving the local neighborhood.

“We are in this park every day, we grew up in this park, our kids go to this park,” resident John King said. “We want our input (considered) because nobody knows the park like us.”